Giant helicopter

Press, 11 May 1979, Page 14

Giant helicopter

By

BILL SWEETMAN

in London

A massive new heavy-lift military helicopter is undergoing flight tests in the Soviet Union. Known in the West by the N.A.T.O. code-name Halo, it is more than twice the size of any Western helicopter. It is possible that Halo will make a surprise appearance at the Paris Air Show early in June. If it does, it will carry the markings of the Soviet State airline, Aeroflot, but it is nevertheless regarded by N.A.T.O. as primarily a military aircraft. Halo could well be used to increase the mobility of the Red Army’s new tactical

surface-to-surface missile systems, which are already worrying N.A.T.O. planners. If the missile launcher and crew could be airlifted out of a remote clearing within minutes of firing, it would greatly reduce the vulnerability of such missile systems to counter-attack. Halo could also be used in the conventional military supply role, cutting out choked surface supply lines. The helicopter has almost certainly been developed by the Mil design team as a substitute for the giant Mi-12, demonstrated eight * years ago but scrapped soon

afterwards because of trouble with its twin-rotor layout. Unlike the Mi-12, Halo is a conventional helicopter with a single, vast main rotor of 130 feet from tip to tip — two-thirds bigger than any Western rotor. Though smaller than the Mi-12, Halo is much bigger than Russia’s 40-ton Mi-16, still the largest helicopter in regular use in spite of the fact that it first flew 21 years ago. An American project for a helicopter in the same class as Halo, the Boeing XCH-62, was scrapped in 1974 before the prototype was completed. —O.F.N.S., copyright.